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美国党代会致力于激励忠诚

Every four years in the United States, national political party conventions are held to officially introduce the presidential nominees¹ to Americans. Early conventions were often governed by backroom negotiations² to choose the nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties. But now they are mainly ceremonial. And some question the need to hold them any more.

美国的民主共和两党每四年都要召开一次全国党代会以正式向美国人民介绍总统候选人。早期的党代会是由私下谈判来选择民主党和共和党的候选人。现在的党代会主要是一种仪式，因为党的总统候选人在党代会之前已经决定了。所以，也有些人质疑这样的党代会是否还有继续举办的必要。

Just like a whistle that starts a soccer match, the conventions signal it’s time for the real game to begin. This high energy has to carry the U.S. presidential campaign through its final 10 weeks.

就像是足球比赛开场时的一声哨响，党代会标志着真正的竞赛开始了。党代会所表现出的这股热情会持续到总统大选。

In the past, political conventions were punctuated⁴ by intrigue⁵ and infighting.

在过去，党代会时有明争暗斗,甚至是暴力。

And even violence. Anti war protesters dominated the story outside the 1968 Democratic party convention.

1968年民主党党代会会场外面就爆发了大规模反战示威。

But now, party conventions are just big parties. Everyone knows the nominees.

但是现在，党代会只是大派对而已。大家都知道谁是候选人。

That's because state primary elections, like the games leading up to soccer's World Cup, already decided⁶ who would make to it to the final match. This year, the Democrat³, President Barack Obama, will face Republican challenger Mitt⁷ Romney. There are few, if any spontaneous moments.

这是因为各州的初选，就像为足球世界杯作准备的那些比赛一样，已经决定了谁将参加最后的竞争。今年，民主党人总统奥巴马将迎战共和党挑战者，米特罗姆尼。几乎不会有意想不到的事情发生。

John Hudak, with the Brookings Institution, said, “Everyone looks very similar in the terms of the types of policies that they are advocating for.”

布鲁金斯学会的约翰 赫达克说：“在他们所支持的政策类型上，每个人都看起来很相似”。

Team unity⁸ comes with a steep price. Each political party receives $18 million from Americans who chose to donate three dollars from their federal tax return. The conventions are expected to cost each party more than double that -- $40 million. Some say it’s money that should be spent differently.

党内团结是要付出高昂的费用的。每一个政党从那些选择从联邦税中捐出三美金的美国人那里收到一千八百万美元。而举办党代会将花掉两倍于此的费用——4千万美元。一些人认为这些钱应该花在别的地方。

Richard Savage⁹, a political consultant¹⁰, said, “People who are in the middle or independents, they may see it as a waste of money, but a lot of people who make the phone calls, do the door-to-door, the convention is kind of their reward.”

政治顾问理查德 .萨维奇说：“中间人士或无党派人士可能会觉得这是浪费钱，但是对那些打电话或者挨家挨户上门拉票的人来说，党代会就是对他们的一种奖励。”

Conventions sometimes introduce rising political rookies. Barack Obama first gained national attention as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic convention.

党代会有时候会介绍一些上升中的政治新人。巴拉克·奥巴马第一次引起全国的注意就是在2004年民主党党代会上作为主题发言人的时候。

“If you are living abroad and you don’t follow American politics too closely, this lets you see who’s on the back bench," said Hudak.

布鲁金斯学会的约翰 赫达克说：“如果你住在国外，不曾密切关注美国政治，这会让你知道谁是后备力量。”

But, the "free kick" at conventions is the TV coverage¹¹. American TV networks broadcast from each convention and offer play-by-play analysis of the candidates - invaluable¹², says Norman Ornstein from the American Enterprise Institute. “Free coverage. You don’t have to pay for commercials when networks are covering hours of the message you want to convey," he said.

党代会上美国电视台在现场实况报道，并对候选人做出详细的分析——美国企业研究所的诺尔曼-奥恩斯坦说，这对竞选总统的人是非常宝贵的。“免费的报道。媒体对于你想传递的信息给予了长时间的报道，而你还不用付广告费。”

And just like in soccer, whoever scores the most wins. For candidates, the goal is to live in the White House. But we won't know who that will be until November 6, election day.

就像在足球比赛中一样，得分最高的队获得胜利。对于候选人来说，目标就是入住白宫。但是一直到11月6号，也就是选举日那天，我们都不会知道那个人是谁。